Christian Works : Roberts Hours

Christian Works

<p style='text-align: justify;'>An early example of a Book of Hours produced in Bruges for the English market. Though the miniatures share stylistic similarities with Northern Netherlandish manuscripts, a Bruges origin is supported by a group of manuscripts of this period illuminated in the same style by the circle of the Master of the Pink Baldachins, some of which also contain Bruges calendars. The addition of St Æthelthryth/Etheldreda, patron saint of Ely Cathedral, to the Calendar and a prayer to her at the end of the manuscript indicate the manuscript's early ownership in East Anglia. Provenance evidence in the form of obits in the calendar indicate that the manuscript circulated in Suffolk and Norfolk for much of the 15th century and into the 16th century. An extensive series of annotations by members of the Roberts family of Middlesex later that century - primarily the dates of birth of children, but also prayers and the signature of Edmund Roberts of Willesden (1521-85) - has led to the manuscript being described by Eamon Duffy as the <i>Roberts Hours</i>. </p>